Thursday, November 13, 2008

KCND Revisited

I arrived in late Jan 1961 and left just before Christmas 1961. [KCND had only been on the air awhile, going live on November 7, 1960...] I've always worked in electronics, broadcasting...

Dennis Lunsford

NOTE: The photos here were provided by Dennis, taken by him or of him, during his time at KCNDThis photo is called "What electrical code?!" - a typical in-joke by an engineer, but funny nonetheless! Hey, you do what you gotta do...

It was still early days in the television broadcasting business and people sometimes had to improvise.Here we see Dennis with colleague Brian Cox. We can only imagine their conversation, as they gaze at the tiny monitors...

"Why yes, Brian, it does!"As you can see in this photo, it was taken so soon after building the new KCND studios, it still didn't have a sign up!

Post-History: KNRR, Channel 12 is still licensed to Pembina, North Dakota (Paul B Walker, SC, ibid.) But is for all intents & purposes, Canadian.

Indeed it is. What really happened with KCND/CKND's "move" across the border was this: Izzy Asper won a new license for channel 9 in Winnipeg from the CRTC in 1974. He bought the assets (programming and physical plant) of independent KCND channel 12 in Pembina ND from Gordon McLendon after convincing McLendon that the startup of a new indie in Winnipeg itself would suck away KCND's cross-border audience.

And then Asper garnered a ton of publicity by "moving" KCND across the border, signing off the Pembina license and turning on his new CKND 9 in Winnipeg at the same time. The old Pembina transmitter was moved to Minnedosa, MB to be a satellite signal for CKND. CKND even took over KCND's old channel 12 spot on Winnipeg cable.

But channel 12 remained alloted to Pembina, and returned to the air in the mid-80s as KNRR with Fox.